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Under the plan discussed by diplomats in Brussels, British companies will be expected to pay a fee to guarantee access to the € 150BN EU arms fund to purchase weapons.
EU and UK are ready to sign a broad Defense and Protection Agreement According to diplomats and officials involved in the discussion, at a summit on May 5, a second, agencies like the BAE system will need a further detailed agreement before the agreement can be financed by the Protection Action for Europe (Safe) Fund.
“The deal is a nonbinding material, the deal is about to be a bilateral agreement that will include financial contribution,” an EU diplomat said.
Safe, to help increase EU countries proposed by the European Commission Defense Spending in response to the fears of Ukraine’s attack on Ukraine and long -term US security in Europe, will jointly launch EU governments to collect cheap loans to spend on weapons.
€ 150bn Fund can be used to buy weapons from non-EU countries’ companies that have a protection agreement with blocks. However, the draft terms of the fund need to discuss the securely related additional agreement before getting access to non-EU countries’ defense industries.
The commission’s defense spokesman Thomas Reagnier said the third countries must “discuss the participation of their respective industries in the collection of their respective, mutual beneficial agreements”.
“You need a second agreement to get your industry in the game. The Commission will discuss it and what every country will first offer,” the second EU diplomat involved in the discussion says the deal is likely to be involved in market access for a specific weapon system.
“Of course, the French will try to complicate it for the British,” they added. “I imagine that it will have some forms [financial] Contributed to involved. “
The third EU diplomat says: “The actual effective agency of the program requires a specific system. We need to discuss the rules, what contributions and further discussion.”
A senior commission officer confirmed that it would require London to pay, but it is not clear whether it was a small administrative fee or even bigger.
All the EU diplomats and officials say they believe that an agreement will be made, but he said it would take some time and lift some restrictions on which British -made equipment was eligible.
The bilateral agreement must “ensure a fair balance of third country contributions and benefits, according to safe control of the draft.”
This will require “the standardization of the defense system and a greater inter -use of the member states and the ‘power’ of these third countries and resolving financial contributions
They need to do the same in order to be eligible for their companies in other countries that already have a defense agreement with South Korea and Japan with the EU.
Ukraine’s arms agencies, as well as the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Zone, Norway and Switzerland, which pays the EU to participate in the single market, get automated access.
Commission officials are hoping that safe discussion between EU member states will end next month, then it will require approval to the European Parliament. There is no guarantee that the whole € 150bn will be used.
Countries must band together and apply for funds for a concrete project within six months of the launch of the fund and each must be approved by Brussels.
Prime Minister Ursula von deer Layne told Prime Minister Sir Care Starmar at a meeting on Thursday that the Defense and Protection Agreement “then could pave the way for a joint collection and UK participation in our safe program,” indicated that the agreement was not enough.
Downing Street did not immediately comment.
